


Since We've No Place To Go

by KiaraSayre



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen, Snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 20:35:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiaraSayre/pseuds/KiaraSayre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's going to snow," Tris announces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Since We've No Place To Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notalwaysweak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/gifts).



> For Lauren (notalwaysweak)! I hope this fulfills your craving for big happy Circle family!

Briar has already hogged half of the honey for his porridge by the time that Daja makes it into the kitchen for breakfast, rubbing the grittiness of sleep from her eyes.

"Morning," Briar says, through an overly large serving of porridge.

"Morning," Daja replies, letting herself half-fall into a chair at the table. She serves herself porridge with arms that feel as weak as noodles, and lets cream accumulate into a small lake on top. She stares at it for a long moment before stirring it in. 

She can feel Briar watching her, and looks up at him in time to see him swallow his mouthful. "What were you doing yesterday? You look exhausted."

"I am exhausted," Daja admits. "His Grace asked Frostpine and I to strengthen the spells on the harbor chain again because it's been so cold."

"So that's where you were yesterday. I thought it was quiet around here." Briar reaches across his bowl and turns the teapot so that the handle faces Daja.

She takes it gratefully and pours herself a cup. "Where's Tris? She's obviously up if she put this together."

Briar shrugs. "Somewhere, I think. And Sandry mentioned yesterday that she'd come by for breakfast, too."

"It's almost Longnight," Daja points out, still groggy. "Has the sun even risen yet?"

The door to the kitchen opens and Tris enters, one of her braids - Daja recognizes it as one of the heat braids that Tris sometimes uses to help Daja in the forge - partially undone. "It's going to snow," she announces, closing the door behind her.

"It's always snowing somewhere," Briar says. "And using your braids is cheating."

"It's going to snow here, today," Tris tells him, and runs her fingers idly through the undone portion of the braid. "Probably not enough to stick to the ground, but enough to start a few conversations."

"Or a lot of conversations," says Daja, intrigued. "Has Summersea ever had snow before?"

"Must have, at some point," says Briar. "I checked my garden - there wasn't even a frost last night."

"That's part of why it won't stick," Tris informs him over her shoulder, walking over to the fire. She kneels by it and with a few deft gestures, draws the heat out and braids it into her hair.

Daja knows better than to try to talk to her while she's attending to her hair - she's received more than a few sparks, accidental and otherwise, trying that. Instead she turns to Briar. "Do you need to do anything for your garden?"

Briar grimaces. "Brush it off as it falls?" He looks past Daja to Tris, securing the end of the braid with a ribbon. "How long will it fall?"

The door outside opens again, and Sandry, her cheeks round with cold, asks, "How long will what fall?"

"The snow," says Daja. "And good morning."

Sandry gives Daja a smile that's warm, despite the obvious chill. "Good morning," she replies, then frowns. "It's going to snow?"

"Not for a few more hours," Tris assures her. "Tea?"

"Snow?" Sandry repeats, her smile reappearing. "Will it be a lot of snow? Will it cover the ground, at least? How long will it fall?"

"Not that much, no, and for two hours at most," Tris says.

"At least someone's excited for it," Briar grumbles, letting a glob of porridge plop off his spoon back into his bowl.

"I love the snow!" Sandry says, now definitely grinning. "I haven't seen it in _years_ \- since we went up to Gold Ridge, now that I think about it."

"I don't think you're missing much," says Daja glumly. "It's just cold and wet."

"It's beautiful!" Sandry exclaims. "Especially when it's falling and it makes everything so quiet. My father hated every time it snowed when I was young - he preferred to be warm. We almost never saw it because of that." She looked at the table. "Is that honey?"

Daja passes it towards Sandry, and Sandry sits at the table and begins serving herself.

"I got enough snow to last me a lifetime in Kugisko," Daja says firmly. "And ice, for that matter."

"Gyonxe isn't exactly beaches and sunshine, either," says Briar.

Sandry looks beseechingly at Tris, who's pulling thick porcelain cups for tea from the cabinets for herself and Sandry. "Tris, you like snow, don't you?"

"I love it," says Tris, coming back to the table with the cups. "Did you know that it forms when tiny drops of water freeze miles above the ground? That's why it can snow even when it isn't cold enough for a frost."

"Thank goodness for that," Daja says, shaking her head. "Frostpine gets insufferable in the cold."

"And so you went to Kugisko?" asked Briar. "And not, say, Tharios? It was nice and warm there, wasn't it, Tris?"

"Insufferably," says Tris, and pours Sandry tea. 

"The weather here was fine while you were gone," says Sandry, and all three of her siblings can recognize the dangerous touch of sullenness that accompanies the well-worn discussion.

Briar raises an eyebrow at Tris, who rolls her eyes but says, "Well, the weather here today will be snow. It should start soon, for that matter."

Sandry's eyes brighten, abandonment issues forgotten. "How soon?"

"Any minute."

Briar yelps. "My herbs are still outside!"

"Move them quick, then," Tris advises. "Unless you want to freeze them so they'll last longer."

"I'm so glad my sister's a weather-witch," Briar grumbles, fumbling his way out of his chair. "It's so helpful to have a sympathetic friend who can keep the snow away from my garden."

Tris sticks her tongue out at him, and Daja and Sandry smile at each other with the familiarity of it.

By the time Briar has rescued his herb garden and checked on a few other small matters, the snow has begun to fall, and despite Tris's prediction, it powders the back garden without melting. Daja and Sandry are out in it, Sandry bundled up and Daja less so, while Tris sits on a low wall in the lee of the rest of the house with a book. Briar can't help but notice the draft directing the few snowflakes that do drift too close to the book away again.

Several of her braids are braided all the way to the end now, without their usual inch or so of unbraided hair. The heat braids, if Briar remembers correctly. Almost as if she had drawn the heat from the ground so that the snow wouldn't melt.

"You know, it's funny," Briar says, sitting down next to her. "I just looked out the front door, and it's not snowing as hard there."

"Really," says Tris, delicately turning a page of her book.

"It's not snowing at all there, actually," says Briar.

"How strange," says Tris.

"And you said it wouldn't stick, but it is."

"Imagine that."

Briar looks out at the courtyard again, where Daja and Sandry are discussing whether snowballs should be packed tight or not. Sandry's cheeks are flushed with happiness, her button nose bright red, and even Daja smiles more easily than she has in - well, in a while.

"If it's bothering you, I can make it stop," says Tris, and when Briar looks back at her, she's watching him right back.

"No," says Briar, "it's not bothering me." Then he reaches over and tweaks one of her heat braids. "Although if you could share what was in there, I wouldn't complain."

Tris scowls. "You want Daja for that."

Briar snorts. "I can see that. Look at the prints she's leaving in the snow." After a moment, he says, "This is...peaceful."

"I know," says Tris dreamily. "Isn't it wonderful?"

Even Briar has to admit that it is.


End file.
